Obama arrives in Paris for climate change talks

President Barack Obama landed at Orly Airport in Paris late Sunday and made an unannounced stop at the Bataclan concert hall, site of the worst of the recent terrorist attacks in the city.

After a 39-minute nighttime ride through a quiet Paris streets and passing a darkened Eiffel Tower, the Assemblée Nationale and La Bastille, his motorcade stopped at Le Bataclan, according to a White House press pool report.

With French President François Hollande and mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo to his right, Obama stood for a long minute of silence in front of candles and flowers and laid down a white rose, but did not say a word, according to the report. He then traveled to the residence of U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.

According to a White House media advisory, Obama is scheduled in the morning to participate in a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China and later in the morning participate in the COP21 opening ceremony.

Last night the White House distributed a fact sheet describing an initiative called Mission Innovation, with 20 countries representing 80 percent of global clean energy research and development budgets committing to double their investments over five years.

The event will launch also the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an independent initiative spearheaded by Bill Gates and a global group of private investors that will allow energy companies that emerge from the research programs of Mission Innovation countries to come out of the lab and into the marketplace.

After taking a picture with leaders of other participating countries and participating in the first session of COP21, Obama will attend a lunch hosted by Hollande, participate in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and then participate in a Mission Innovation event with Hollande, Modi and other leaders and members of the private sector.